


Let Go

by NervousAsexual



Series: Whumptober 2020 [17]
Category: Fallout: New Vegas
Genre: Dead Money DLC, Dirty Secret, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Implied/Referenced Suicide, No Dialogue, POV Third Person Limited, Spoilers for the DLC, this was kind of experimental
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-16
Updated: 2020-10-16
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:20:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27047134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NervousAsexual/pseuds/NervousAsexual
Summary: Vera Keyes listens.
Series: Whumptober 2020 [17]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1960987
Kudos: 2
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	Let Go

**Author's Note:**

> Whumptober prompt #17--dirty secret

_Begin again in the night_

_Let's sway again tonight_

_Your arm on my shoulder_

_Your cheek against mine_

_Where can we go_

_When will we find that we know_

The screams have stopped.

She pauses the tape and listens again. The Resort is silent. No music. No recordings. No screams. Just the distinctive ozone smell of the security holograms and silence.

She starts the tape again.

As the instrumental plays she watches the ceiling with heavy-lidded red-rimmed eyes. She traces patterns in the fish scale texture. Here is a heart. Here is a rose. Here is a smiling baby.

She glances at the picture on the nightstand. Her own smiling face looks back at her, cheek to cheek with Frederick, whose mustache curves up in a smile of his own. His eyes, framed by crow's feet, are shining bright. His arm and hers are entwined. Both are in their Gala finery. In the background the plaza fountain has just been erected.

Her eyes return to the ceiling. She turns the photograph to the wall. She rewinds the tape and starts it again.

Quietly she hums along with the taped melody, breaking here and there to harmonize with her own voice. Her eyes are dry. She only sobs once.

Her bare arms, covered in goosebumps, fold across her chest. Her fingers twitch in time to the music. Down, left, right, up. Down, left, right... Her hands grow still. The piano plays.

She rewinds the tape and starts it again.

She looks to her dresser, the loose Med-X syringes and half-empty absinthe bottle on top. She shifts on the bed and her own voice joins the piano again.

_Where can we go  
When will we find that we know  
To let go  
Begin, begin again tonight  
_

She rewinds the tape.

_we know to let go_

She rewinds the tape

_to let go_

again and again

_let go_

the piano plays

_let go_

and Vera sings

_let go_

into the silence of the Sierra Madre.


End file.
